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Ely Ould Mohamed Vall
Former President of Mauritania and cousin of the current Head of State, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall died, Friday, May 5, of a "cardiac arrest" while he was on vacation in the Tiris region, at the extreme north of Mauritania. A three-day national mourning was announced by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, of whom he had become one of the fiercest opponents in this country marked by a long history of military coups. Born in 1953 in Nouakchott, the capital, this professional soldier was the head of national security (police) for more than twenty years under the presidency of Maaouiya Ould Taya, who came to power by arms in 1984, before turning around against him in August 2005. He then took the head of a junta which overthrew Ould Taya. Contrary to the usual scenario in the country, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, head of the Military Committee for Justice and Democracy, made sure to restore power to civilians in 2007. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was thus the first civilian democratically elected head of the Mauritanian state since 1978. This unprecedented transition earned the military international recognition and the image of a virtuous putschist. However, this democratic parenthesis was short-lived. The president-elect was overthrown in 2008 by a coup d'état by current president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. An opposition figure The break between the two men, first cousins, was never exceeded. Colonel Vall, a candidate in the 2009 presidential election, won only 3.81% of the vote against Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who won the poll. He was not officially a member of an opposition party, but he was one of the figures, particularly virulent. Large, elegant and distant, it multiplied the releases in the international press. "Mauritania has been put by the current regime in a deplorable economic situation," he denounced to Le Monde in October 2016 during a visit to Paris, pointing out the difficulties of SNIM, the national mining company. “All of this because of mismanagement and embezzlement. Foreign investors no longer come. " The man also accused the current head of state of wanting to stay in power. In recent years, he has tirelessly fought the process of constitutional reform launched by President Aziz. "It is only to allow him to open a breach: either to represent himself, or to present a man he will control. Even the regime's record in terms of the fight against terrorism (no attack recorded since 2011) was not appreciated. "The attacks started when he came to power! The terrorists broke into the country with him. If the attacks have stopped, it is not his fault, but the consequence of the French operation "Serval" in Mali, "he explained. Buried in Nouakchott Because of the boycott decided by the opposition, he did not run in the 2014 presidential election, which was again won hands down by President Aziz. But many lent him the ambition to appear again in 2019. Asked about the subject, he kicked in touch, explaining that it was first necessary "to find a political solution (...), to allow a political transition in transparency which can come out with a regime that is legitimate enough to face the challenges of the country (…). When we get back to normal, we will talk about holding elections, "he said. As soon as the news of his death was known, a military plane was dispatched by the government to bring the body of the former president back to Nouakchott. The burial took place in the presence of several political and religious figures, including the Mauritanian head of state, according to an official program. The National Forum for Democracy and Unity (FNDU), the main opposition coalition in which Mr. Vall campaigned as an independent figure, has suspended all his political activities to "honor his memory", told AFP his spokesperson, Saleh Ould Henenna. "The disappearance of President Ely Ould Mohamed Vall is a great loss for Mauritania and for the democratic opposition," he said. Category:Authoritarian Leaders Category:African dictators Category:Deceased